THE AMERICAS: Under the Banyan Tree

Before dawn one day last week, a company of Panamanian soldiers hopped into landing craft and hit the beach on the Pacific coast of the U.S. Canal Zone. Just after sunup, a company of Brazilian paratroopers tumbled out of U.S. Air Force turboprop transports over the zone after a 500-mile flight from Bogotá, Colombia. Next came 1,175 men of the crack U.S. 82nd Airborne and a planeload of Colombian soldiers. Chilean and Peruvian F-80 jets joined U.S. F-100 Super Sabres to provide air support. For the first time, in "Exercise...

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